4. Confession, Repentance and Forgiveness

Step 2 Love People

4. Confession, Repentance and Forgiveness

Training

Today we begin step 2 of the Kingdom Way journey.

To recap Step 1 was all about Loving God

To Love God means to obey God

we covered abiding in the Holy Spirit

Praying to our heavenly Father

Welcoming the Living Word -Jesus

If you missed any of them please catch up on facebook or youtube or even twitter.

Today we progress to step 2 of our journey.

Love People

So How do you Love people?

Well that’s a loaded question?

One that you will discover how to answer as you draw closer to God

Its a very important aspect of God’s plan to spread His Gospel

You see many Christians have tried to the right thing but with the wrong motivation

knowing they are supposed to reach the lost for Jesus

They can be motivated by

guilt...... my pastor told me I had to, If I don’t tell them about Jesus they will go to hell

religion.... I alone hold the truth and I must get them to listen to me !

pride..... I’m God’s gift to he world. I can save them through my efforts

envy........Look at that church over there, they are growing we should be growing too

desperation..... If we don’t start bringing people to Jesus God’s going to close us down

even excellence..... I have all the knowledge and I’m going to use it!

When the only motivation we should hold is Love.

We share the Gospel because we Love

We make Disciples…because we Love

that’s it!

And real Love can only be carried out in relationship

Loving God....Means having a relationship with God

Loving People....Means having a relationship with People

One thing that would benefit us would be to realize that we have an enemy.

who is out to steal Kill and destroy.

One of satan’s focuses, is to bring division and break relationships

Like hyena’s who try to isolate their prey away from the herd.

The enemy will attempt everything in its power to isolate you from the ones God has called you to be in relationship with.

How does he do this?

satan wants us to make a pattern of obeying our desires instead of God’s direction.

do what feels good, avoid the things that make you feel bad

satan wants us to underestimate how weak we are to temptation.

“thats’s not me…someone else has that issue”

satan wants to weaken relationships by going after their trust in one another

Whatever satan schemes, God has already provided a solution for

Today were going to deal with 3 tools God has given to protect relationships.

Both with Him and those around us

4. Confession, Repentance and Forgiveness

Confession is agreeing with God.

Sometimes we agree with God that we’ve done something we shouldn’t or didn’t do something we should have.

It’s saying He’s right and we’re going to change.

The fact we change is what’s called “Repentance”.

There are two words for repentance in the Bible.

The first one is Greek and it means “to change your mind”.

The other one is Hebrew and it means “to turn around and go in the complete opposite direction”.

Understand repentance requires we make both of those choices.

Our minds are changed when we can confess our sin and repent.

We turn around when we stop doing what we shouldn’t and/or start doing what we should.

James 5:16 NASB95

Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.

Confessing our sins to one another is not about securing God’s forgiveness of our sin.

John tells

1 John 1:9 NASB95

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

So why then do we confess our sins to one another?

James tells us: so that you may be healed.

When we confess our sins to one another and repent, we are restored by the one we confess to.

Is there something you need to confess to to someone?

Find trustworthy people who will keep everything they can in confidence.

If you need help making things right, they will help in anyway they can.

If nothing jumps to you mind, there’s no need to go searching for it.

Holy Spirit is the one who convicts us and He’ll do it when it’s needed.

Confession and repentance are wonderful tools for us as we learn to love others more and more.

Another tool that we need in our arsenal is Forgiveness.

Jesus told His disciples in a parable that we need to forgive each other with our hearts

Matthew 18:15–35 NASB95

“If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. “But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed. “If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. “Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. “Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. “For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.” Then Peter came and said to Him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven. “For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. “When he had begun to settle them, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. “But since he did not have the means to repay, his lord commanded him to be sold, along with his wife and children and all that he had, and repayment to be made. “So the slave fell to the ground and prostrated himself before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you everything.’ “And the lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him the debt. “But that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and he seized him and began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay back what you owe.’ “So his fellow slave fell to the ground and began to plead with him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you.’ “But he was unwilling and went and threw him in prison until he should pay back what was owed. “So when his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved and came and reported to their lord all that had happened. “Then summoning him, his lord said to him, ‘You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. ‘Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on you?’ “And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him. “My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart.”

We need to unpack what that means.

To ancient Hebrews, our heart is the seat of our intellect, the seat of our will and the seat of our emotions.

It covers all three and is the place we make sense of the world.

1. We need to forgive with our intellect.

Forgiveness is a choice. This an act of our intellect. If we don’t choose to forgive, we’ll never feel like we’ve forgiven.

Sometimes we don’t forgive because we think the offender won’t pay if we forgive.

What it actually means is we pay if we don’t forgive

Matthew 6:14–15 NASB95

“For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. “But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.

Luke 6:37 NASB95

“Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned.

Sometimes we want to wait until the person changes before we forgive.

But we’re told to forgive as Christ forgave us

Colossians 3:13 NASB95

bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.

and He did that while we were still sinners

Romans 5:8 NASB95

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Sometimes we don’t or can’t forgive because we think it means we automatically need to put yourself back in danger.

It doesn’t.

The root of Greek word used in the Bible for “forgive” means “to cut off, sever, release, send away.”

Forgiveness is not the same as reconciliation.

2. We need to forgive with our will (actions).

We need to bless those who curse us.

This is an act of our will.

We can bless in word or in deed.

We need to obey what God commands.

Sometimes with these two parts of the heart in agreement, Holy Spirit can do an amazing work in us so that we actually feel like we’ve forgiven them.

It’s amazing what happens when all three parts of our heart come into alignment.

We can truly live in the freedom forgiveness brings.

3. We need to forgive with our emotions.

If you don’t feel like you’ve forgiven someone whose offended you, there is a problem.

Our feelings show us the truth about what we really believe.

We always feel what we believe. Our emotions are wonderful servants, but they will overrule the other two parts of heart.

When the truth doesn’t feel true, it’s because we believe something contrary to the truth, not because the truth isn’t true.

When we don’t feel like we’ve forgiven an offender we can’t ignore our our feelings.

Our intellectual belief and choice to bless will only take us so far.

We need Holy Spirit’s persuasion or we will not be able to forgive from the heart.

We need to feel like we’ve forgiven someone who’s offended us.

We can’t ignore or push aside these feelings. Let them show you what Holy Spirit needs to heal. We all need well healed wounds.

Now the good news God wants to help us heal those wounds we have.

We have beliefs attached to those wounds that cause us to feel what we feel.

Emotions are our friends, pointing us in the direction we need to take in order to identify what we really believe.

Memory helps us answer the question: How did I come to believe what I currently believe which is causing me to feel what I feel?

Once the lie we’re believing has been identified we can offer it to the Lord for His perspective.

This is when Holy Spirit can persuade our hearts of the truth.

When this occurs, forgiveness from the heart will naturally follow.

Forgiveness becomes an expected outcome of being persuaded of God’s truth in our heart.

Tool

The Transformation Prayer Ministry is design to help us to make use of our emotions.

It can help you allow Holy Spirit to heal you so you FEEL and know you’ve forgiven the person who has offended you.

The tool today is an overview of the process.

There is more training on it.

If your Growth Coach isn’t trained in facilitating TPM, they will know someone who is and can put you in touch with them.

You can get more training for this at https://www.transformationprayer.org/the-tpm-process-explained-the-map/ (link on MyKWC.ca?)

Application

Do you have something you need to confess?

Trust it to someone you can trust.

Is there someone you need to forgive?

Do what you need to so can forgive them from your heart.

Closing

Matthew 5:24 NASB95

leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering.